uld shoot through the water like a fish, and ridiculed
such an absurdity. He defied me to point to any such inconsistencies
in the Holy Bible. He said the Bible was a book of common sense,
written by men inspired of God. It was full of good works and
pure characters, nothing like the impostor Joseph. He challenged
me again to point to a single instance in the Bible which would
compare with the stories in the Book of Mormon. The idea of
apostles and prophets and supernatural gifts in the Church, as in
the days of Christ, was absurd. He said the History of Nephi was
absurd and a burlesque upon common sense; that he hoped none of
the people would be led away by such nonsense and folly. I sat
facing him during all his long harangue of abuse and ridicule.

When it was my turn to speak I asked the reverend gentleman to
occupy my seat. I did not want more than thirty minutes to reply.
I said to the assembly that a sense of duty to the truth, and the
cause I had espoused, alone prompted me to make any reply to the
long tirade of abuse and sarcasm they had been listening to. The
gentleman and his prompters had gathered quite an angry-looking
cloud of pamphlets and newspaper slang and abuse, without quoting
a single passage of Scripture to disprove my position, or in
support of their own. But on the contrary, he had become an
accuser of the brethren, speaking evil of things he knew not. The
spirit of persecution, hatred, and malice is not the spirit of
the meek and lowly Saviour. The gentleman tells you that the day
of perfection has arrived, that Satan is bound in the gospel
chain, that we have no need of spiritual manifestations, that
this is the reign of Christ. Now, I will say that if this is the
millennial reign of Christ, and the devil is bound in the gospel
chain, I pity the inhabitants of the earth when he gets loose
again. After reading the description of the millennial reign, as
it shall be, as described by the Prophet Isaiah, can anyone be so
stupid as to believe that we are now living in that holy day?
Shame on him who would deceive and tamper with the souls of men!
The gentleman who told you this, doesn't believe it.

The gentleman has challenged me to produce anything from the
Bible equaling in strangeness the building of a boat like a fish,
in which the Nephites crossed the ocean from Asia to America. I
call his attention to the first chapter of the Book of Jonah.
Here a very strange craft was used for three day